Three men jailed for 40 years after killing a man in Birmingham over a row about an e-bike
Ronique Thomas was stabbed in April last year.
Three men have received jail terms totalling over 40 years for killing and robbing a man in Kings Heath in April last year.
Terrell Boyce, 18, from Hazellwell Street, Birmingham was convicted in January of the murder of Ronique Thomas. He was given a life sentence at Birmingham Crown Court and will serve a minimum of 25 years in prison.
Nathaniel Daly, 21, from Benmore Avenue in Birmingham, and Kody Stephenson, 20, from Stechford, also stood trial for the offence. Daly, who was found guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Stephenson received six and a half years for robbery.
The three were involved in the fatal knife attack on 33-year-old Mr Thomas from Edgbaston in the early hours of Wednesday 26 April last year. The stabbing was the culmination of a dispute over the ownership of an electric bike, which Mr Thomas reported stolen in October 2022.
In March of last year, Mr Thomas was with his partner in Highgate when he recognised what he was sure was his bike being ridden by Boyce. When challenged, Boyce reluctantly handed the bike over but in the weeks after the disagreement he visited the workplace of Mr Thomas’s partner, demanding the bike be returned to him and making threats of retribution.
By chance, Boyce, Daly and Stephenson were travelling in a taxi on their way through King’s Heath just before 2.30am on 26 April, when they spotted the bike parked outside a shop on the High Street.
Boyce instructed the driver to stop and all three got out of the vehicle. Boyce confronted Mr Thomas, who was in the shop, pulling out a knife then chasing him and striking him several times. Daly, who was also carrying a knife, joined in the chase while Stephenson grabbed the bike from outside the shop. After the attack, the three men made off.
Following a swift investigation, we arrested Daly on 27 April. Boyce, who had fled Birmingham, was arrested in Scunthorpe the following day. Two weeks later, after we launched a public appeal to identify the third suspect, Stephenson handed himself into custody.
Detective Inspector Jim Colclough from our homicide investigations team said: “Ronique Thomas tragically lost his life over an argument about the ownership of an electric bike.
“Terrell Boyce felt slighted by Mr Thomas taking what he believed was his, and in seeking revenge, carried out a vicious attack and robbery with the assistance of Nathaniel Daly and Kody Stephenson.
“Mr Thomas’s family have been left devastated by his loss but I hope today’s sentences offer some reassurance that those responsible are now rightly paying for their actions.”